Egyptian God: Horus
Horus is a complicated deity, appearing in many different forms and his mythology is one of the most extensive of all Egyptian deities. Indeed, he has so many different aspects that we must limit our discussion to those that are significant. Introduction Horus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists."The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology", Edited by Donald B. Redford, Horus: by Edmund S. Meltzer, p164-168, Berkley, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-x These various forms may possibly be different perceptions of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasised, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality."The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology", Edited by Donald B. Redford, p106 & p165, Berkley, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-x The earliest recorded form is Horus the Falcon who was the patron deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt and who is the first known national god, specifically related to the king who in time became to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris but in another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. General information Other Names: Heru, Hor, Harendotes/Har-nedj-itef (Horus the Avenger), Har-Pa-Neb-Taui (Horus Lord of the Two Lands) Patron of: the living Pharaoh, rulers, law, war, young men, light, the sun, many others depending on the particular variant. Appearance: His most common form is that of falcon-headed man, but he is also shown as a falcon, a lion with the head of a falcon, or a sphinx. He is also shown as a falcon resting on the neck of the pharaoh, spreading his wings to either side of the pharaoh's head and whispering guidance in his ear. Description: It is nearly impossible to distinguish a "true" Horus from all his many forms. In fact, Horus is mostly a general term for a great number of falcon gods, some of which were worshipped all over Egypt, others simply had local cults. Yet in all of his forms he is regarded as the prince of the gods and the specific patron of the living ruler. The worship of Horus was brought from the outside by neighboring tribes who invaded and then settled into Egypt. He was their god of war, but was quickly absorbed into the state religion, first as a son of Ra, then changing to become the son of Osiris. He was the protector and guide to the pharaoh and later pharaohs were believed to be his avatar on earth. Horus was also the patron of young men and the ideal of the dutiful son who grows up to become a just man. The most popular story of Horus is the one in which he grows to manhood to avenge the death of his father Osiris by battling against his cruel uncle Set. In many writings, he is said to continue to battle Set daily to ensure the safety of the world. Worship: Worshipped widely throughout all of Egypt, even his variant forms were widespread. Variants: Harmakhet God of the dawn and of the morning sun, he is also worshipped as a keeper of secret wisdom. Harmakhet's form is that of a sphinx or a sphinx with the head of a ram, often depicted as a companion to Khephri. It is thought that the Great Sphinx, staring at the eastern horizon, represents him. Har-Pa-Khered/Harpokrates Rarely found depicted without his mother Isis. He is shown as a nursing infant with the royal sidelock or sometimes even with a crown, thus demonstrating his right to kingship from the moment of his birth. His worship became very popular in the New Kingdom, spreading even into the Greek and Roman civilizations. Har-Sa-Iset/Harsiesis This is the form of Horus that is most familiar, the son of Osiris and Isis. He was conceived magically after the death of Osiris, and Isis hid him away on an island to protect him from Set. In this form he is worshipped as an infant and is beseeched to gain his mother's protection for the worshipper. Horus Behudety/Horus of Edfu God of the noontime sun. This particular variant was first worshipped in the western Delta and spread south, a cult center being established at Edfu. He is represented by a winged sun or as a lion with the head of a hawk. Horus Behudety fights constantly against Set and an army of darkness to ensure that the sun rises each day. Horus the Elder (Haroeris) An early form of Horus, when his cult was still new in Egypt. A god of light, his left eye was the sun and his right eye the moon. He was the brother of Osiris and Set, and the husband of Hathor. Ra-Harakhte A combined god of Horus and Ra, he was the god of the sun and took it on its daily path across the sky. He is represented as a falcon or a falcon-headed man wearing the solar disk and the double crown. Sometimes he is pictured wearing the atef crown and the uraeus. Story of Horus In the most well known telling of Horus, written on Papyrus Chester Beatty I in Thebes during the New Kingdom and the reign of Ramses V (Its purpose is entertainment rather than religious instruction; Most likely it goes further back as its´content builds upon earlier tales of the deities involved.), Horus was seen and worshiped as the male child of Osiris and Isis (Har-pa-khered, literally "Horus the Child", from which the Greeks created the name of Harpokrates). Isis conceived Horus after his father, Osiris, had been killed and cut into pieces by his uncle, Set. Isis with the help of her sister (and Set's sister/wife) Nephthys, and her son with Osiris, Anubis, gathered up the pieces of Osiris; all expect his manhood which had been thrown into the nile (making it fertile), and eaten by the fish. So Isis would fashion a manhood for Osiris, out of wood, stone, or simular. Isis resurrected Osiris with the Ritual of Life, which was later given to the Egyptians so that they could give eternal life to all their dead. Isis then laid with her husband and conceived Horus. The story begins as Horus and sets out from Chemmis where has grown up, protected by his mother Isis. It will however be clear that her help is still needed if he is to win his father´s throne back from Set. Horus appears in front of the Council of the Gods at Heliopolis, presided over by Atum. Here he claims the right to the throne of Egypt, which Shu, the son of Re thinks is justice. Also Thoth, the god of wisdom agrees. Isis cries out in joy: "Hence, North Wind! to the west and tell the good news to the 'still vigorous one'" (Osiris). But Re has not yet given his word, and is angered that the gods have not waited for his decision. He is silent for a while and Seth takes his chance to suggest that he and Horus go outside and decide by combat who shall have the throne, something which Thoth disagrees with as Horus is after all the son of Osiris. Re is still angered as he prefers the strength of Seth to a young, unproven boy. Things come to a standstill for a period of eighty years before the gods decide to seek the advice of Neith, the creator goddess. A letter is sent off in the name of Re. Her answer is curt and somewhat impatient; give the office to Horus, otherwise she will get angry and the sky will topple. To placate Seth she suggests that he be given Re´s two daughters Anat and Astarte as wives. Everyone is relieved except for Re who accuses Horus of being a weakling and not strong enough for such an important office. A quarrel break out and Re leaves them to go sulking on his own. This is where Hathor steps in to cheer him up. She goes to stand before him and pulls her skirts up, revealing her private parts. This changes Re´s mood, he laughs and returns to the council and tells Horus and Seth to state their cases. Seth boasts of his strength and says that only he is the one who can slay Apophis, the enemy of Re, every day from the prow of the sunboat. Some gods approve of this as Seth is the elder one, though Thoth and Anhur questions if it is justifiable to give the throne to a brother while the rightful heir, the son is capable of taking assuming it. Isis now loses patience and speaks to gain the sympathy of the council, while Seth refuses to submit to any council as long as Isis is present. Re then moves the whole company to an island and tells the ferryman Nemty to not let any woman looking like Isis be ferried across. Isis however is more clever than they think. She deftly disguises herself as an old woman and tricks Nemty into rowing her across. In the bargain for the fare Isis pays him with a golden ring. On the island Isis changes herself again, now into a young, beautiful woman and catches the attention of Seth and presents herself as the widow of a herdsman whose son is in danger of having his father´s cattle confiscated and himself and the mother evicted from their home. Seth is indignant at this injustice and at this point Isis changes herself again, this time into a kite. From the branches of an acacia she tells Seth that his own verdict has condemned him. Seth is very agitated and complains to Re, then he has Nemty dragged before the tribunal and punished by having his toes cut off. The whole company then moves to a mountain in the desert and gives the throne to Horus, but Seth manages to intercede it by challenging Horus to a contest. Now follows a series of bizarre events, probably with the purpose of discrediting Seth. In the first one, Horus and Seth changes into hippopotami and stay under water for three months. Isis becomes concerned for her son and fashions a copper harpoon and throws it at the spot where they disappeared under the water. She misses and hits Horus instead but retrieves it by her magic when he complains. On her next throw she hits Seth but when he appeals to her and claims the brother-sister relationship between them, she withdraws the weapon again. Next, Horus emerges out of the water, enraged that his mother spared the life of Seth. He cuts off her head and she turns into a headless statue of flint. Later Seth finds Horus asleep under a tree and attacks him and gouges out his eyes which he buries in the sand where they turn into lotus flowers. Hathor discovers Horus and by pouring gazelle milk into his eye sockets she causes them to heal. Re then hears of what has happened, loses patience with them both and summons them to his court where he orders them to stop quarreling. Seth pretends to agree, and invites Horus to his home, but he has not yet given up and so makes a homosexual attack on Horus. Horus however resorts to trickery himself and manages to catch the semen of Seth, which he later shows his mother Isis. She is outraged, cuts off his hand, throws it into the marshes and by her magic creates a new one for him. Then by the use of powerful unguents she makes Horus´s phallus arise and catches the semen in a jar, spreading it on lettuces which Seth later eats. By having homosexually dominated Horus, Seth hopes to make Horus appear as the laughingstock before the gods, and wants their respective semen be called forth from where it is located. Thoth does so, and the semen of Set comes out, not from Horus, but from the marshes where Horus' hand had been thrown by Isis. Horus´s semen appears as a gold disc on the head of Seth who is now is the one humiliated. But Seth does not give up. Instead he challenges Horus to make a ship of stone to race it against his own. Horus then builds a ship of pinewood and coats it with plaster so that it looks like stone. Seth however, builds a ship of stone, which immediately sinks, which causes him to once again turn into a hippopotamus and destroys Horus´ boat. Horus has had enough and wants to kill Seth, but is stopped by the other gods. Then he sails off to Neith at Sais and expresses his frustration and amazement that he, despite so many judgment for his sake, he still not has gained the throne of his father. At this point there is an exchange of letters between Re and Osiris in the underworld. The result is that Osiris threatens them all with the agents of the underworld which do not fear to bring down any wrongdoer, including the stars in the heavens together with man and god alike and make them descend below the Western Horizon to the kingdom of Osiris. This causes them all to think things over and to finally instate Horus on the throne of Egypt.Seth is the prisoner of Isis, but Re still favors him and states that Seth will accompany Re in the heavens and that his voice will be heard in the thunder itself. Mythology Sky god Horus was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from Set, the god of the desert, storms and chaos.Ancient Egyptian CultureThe Gods of Ancient Egypt - HorusAncient Egypt: the Mythology - Horus Since he was god of the sky, Horus became depicted as a falcon, or as a falcon-headed man, leading to Horus' name, (in Egyptian, Heru), which meant The distant one. As falcon he may be shown on the Narmer Palette dating from the time of unification of upper and lower Egypt. Horus was also sometimes known as Nekheny (meaning falcon), although it has been proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), that became identified as Horus very early on. He was married to Hathor, the god of love. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one). As Horus was the son of Osiris, and god of the sky, he became closely associated with the Pharaoh of Lower Egypt (where Horus was worshipped), and became their patron. The association with the Pharaoh brought with it the idea that he was the son of Isis, in her original form, who was regarded as a deification of the Queen. Sun god Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Thus he became known as Harmerty - Horus of two eyes. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Upper Egypt by Lower Egypt in about 3000 BC. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus (see below). As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis, Heru-ur or Har-Wer ('Horus the Great'), but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile. Horus' left eye had also been gouged out, which explained why the moon, which it represented, was so weak compared to the sun. It was also said that during a new-moon, Horus had become blinded and was titled Mekhenty-er-irty ('He who has no eyes'), while when the moon became visible again, he was re-titled Khenty-irty ('He who has eyes'). While blind, it was considered that Horus was quite dangerous, sometimes attacking his friends after mistaking them for enemies. Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor. This is also spelled Nefer Hor, Nephoros or Nopheros (meaning 'The Good Horus'). War god Horus was also said to be a war god and a hunter's god, since he was associated with the falcon; (the Horus falcon is shown upon a standard on the predynastic Hunters Palette in the "lion hunt"). Thus he became a symbol of majesty and power as well as the model of the pharaohs.Egypt: Gods of Ancient Egypt Main Menu The Pharaohs were said to be Horus in human form. Furthermore Nemty (also a war god meaning "He who travels") was later identified as Horus.The Contendings of Horus and Seth Saviour god Shed is a deity whose name means "Saviour" and is first recorded during the Amarna Period."The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt", p. 313, Ian Shaw, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0192802933 Representing the concept of salvation he is identified with Horus and in particular "Horus the Child"."The Egyptians: an introduction", Robert Morkot, Routledge, p210, 2005, ISBN 0415271045 Along with Bes, whose image has been found in Christian graves, he is associated with Christian artefacts. An amulet has been found depicting Christ on one side and Shed (in the form of Horus) on the reverse."The Secret Lore of Egypt: its impact on the West", p. 75, Erik Hornung, Translated by David Lorton, Cornell University Press, 2001, ISBN 0801438470 Shed can be depicted as a young prince overcoming snakes, lions and crocodiles."Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt", Geraldine Pinch, p. 195, Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0195170245 The rise of "Saviour" names in personal piety during the Amarna period has been interpreted as the popular response of ordinary people to the attempts by Akhenaten to proscribe the ancient religion of Egypt. Shed has also been viewed as a form of the ancient Semitic god Reshef. "The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology", edited Donald B. Redford, p. 120 & 312, Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-X Conqueror of Set After Set killed Osiris, Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. One scene stated how Horus was on the verge of killing Set; but his mother (and Set's sister), Isis, stopped him. Isis injured Horus, but eventually healed him.published by DBP, Chapter: Egypt's divine kingship By the Nineteenth dynasty, the enmity between Set and Horus, in which Horus had ripped off one of Set's testicles, was represented as a separate tale. According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen, then subsequently throws it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus then deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favorite food (the Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic). After Set has eaten the lettuce, they go to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listen to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answers from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listen to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answers from inside Set.Theology WebSite: The 80 Years of Contention Between Horus and Seth But still Set refused to relent, and the other gods were getting tired from over eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus and Set challenged each other to a boat race, where they each raced in a boat made of stone. Horus and Set agreed, and the race started. But Horus had an edge: his boat was made of wood painted to resemble stone, rather than true stone. Set's boat, being made of heavy stone, sank, but Horus's did not. Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt.published by DBP, Chapter: Egypt's divine kingship But after the New Kingdom, Set still was considered Lord of the desert and its oases. God of Confusion, by TeVelde This myth, along with others, could be seen as an explanation of how the two kingdoms of Egypt (Upper and Lower) came to be united. Horus was seen as the God of Lower Egypt, and Set as the God of Upper Egypt (which happens to be south of the Delta region). In this myth, the respective Upper and Lower deities have a fight, through which Horus is the victor. However, some of Horus (representing Lower Egypt) enters into Set (Upper Egypt) thus explaining why Lower Egypt is dominant over the Upper Egyptians. Set's regions were then considered to be of the desert. References :* The Contendings of Horus and Seth :* The gods of Ancient Egypt :* Wikipedia Category:Ancient Egypt Category:Ancient Egyptian Gods Category:Gods and Goddesses Category:Egyptian Gods Category:Mythology